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"I have always been for the memori-
al," said student Daniel Tretter, 25.
But other countries should also think
about what happened. There were
many helpers" in the genocide, he said.
"It disturbs me that it took so long,
and that the decision might have been
made now under pressure," said stu-
dent Swenya Maass, 23, who was 12
years old when the memorial was first
proposed. She and friend Matthias
Temme, 23, had paused at the site
during a bike ride. "But in principle, I
think it is a good idea."
"Perhaps it is best that it is gigan-
tic, to show the dimensions of the
persecution," said Temme. "The
Eisenman design is not the most
beautiful, but maybe the memorial
should not be beautiful."
While Maass said many younger
people are seeking information
about the history of the Holocaust,
Temme thought more-are disinter-
ested or even hostile.
"There is so much hatred of for-
eigners," he said.
An older couple, who preferred not
to give their names, said the memorial
will anger younger Germans.
"They say, 'We never killed a Jew and
neither did my parents. Why should we
be ashamed or sad?'" said the man.
The woman said the memorial
would attract dogs and vandalism.
"And we feel bad that it is only for the
Jews. 'What about the other victims?"
The parliamentary debate was one
of the parliament's last official acts in
Bonn before its move to Berlin's
newly refurbished Reichstag. The
vote mirrored the struggle to come
to terms with the past.
"Fifty-four years had to go by
before our country had the courage to
find a common form of remember-
ing," said one of the youngest legisla-
tors, Michael Roth, 28, of the Social
Democratic Party. "Why only now?"
"We're not building this memorial
for the Jews or for other victims,"
said the president of Parliament,
Wolfgang Thierse, also a Social
Democrat. "We're building it for us.
With this memorial, there can be no
more denial or indifference."
Can such a monument ever be a suf-
ficient response to what happened dur-
ing the war? "Can any response — aes-
thetic, religious, social, political — ever
be adequate to Holocaust memory?"
asked James Young, American scholar
and expert on memorials, who has
been a consultant on the Berlin project.
"Probably not, but we continue to
respond nonetheless, adequately or
not." Fl
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.71•1•32.3..K.12:14n114,60.17.••••NCeaelfICISIII...12V
Detroit Jewish News
7/16
1999
27